An amusing social comedy thanks to regular and some dark humor that will entertain you while watching how each character’s selfish motives and agenda are gradually exposed. Good performances by ensemble cast and some remarkable lines (“writers are just thieves and liars”) make this Stephen Frears comedy a great escape moment but in my opinion, not much else.

A story with writers, musicians, rural workers and two very bored young girls that’s based on a comic strip by Posy Simmonds, that later became a graphic novel, which is based on Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd; but according to what I read is a free adaptation that not necessarily resembles any of the above and with this comment I dissipated all my doubts about me wondering how this film could be based on a comic strip/graphic novel as from watching I couldn’t tell.

Somehow while and after watching I got this idea that character Nicholas Hardiment was the perfect role for Alan Rickman and can’t deny that for more than a few moments I imagined it was him. Anyway story tells about a young newspaper writer that returns to her hometown in the English countryside where her childhood home is being prepped for sale only to trigger all kind of situations in the small rural community.

Not exactly my kind of English comedy as it was not dark enough for me, but surely makes story more accessible to world audiences that will also enjoy film’s good tech specs.

So if you’re in the mood for some light comedy of misunderstandings and actions by two very bored girls (that steal the movie) then you should give this film a try.